The Cultural Transmission of Ambition: How China's Sent-Down Youth Reshaped Rural Gender Norms
Evidence from China’s 17 million strong Sent Down Youths movement
What shapes our ambitions? Is it just our immediate family and friends, or can outsiders with different perspectives change our view of what’s possible?
Throughout history, societies have recognised the power of exposure to new ideas, especially through education. It’s why missionaries set up schools, why governments design national curriculums, and why some conservatives seek to ban subversive books.
But how can we measure the impact of such cultural transmission? One fascinating avenue is to examine massive population movements, which bring people with differing ideologies.
Today, we’re digging into China’s Send-down Movement - where over 17 million urban youth (known as Sent-Down Youths or SDYs) were relocated to rural areas, ostensibly for reeducation through labor.
A new paper by Chong Liu, Wenyi Lu, and Ye Yuan finds that SDYs, as teachers and neighbours, became inadvertent catalysts for gender equality. Rural women exposed to urban sent-down youth achieved greater education, increased labor participation, greater financial independence, as well as later marriage, and fewer children. Moreover, in affected areas, women adopted more progressive gender ideologies and reported higher levels of mental well-being decades later.
In this essay, I’ll discuss these findings in detail and propose research ideas - on the cultural influence of teachers!
